


Back with me (with us)

by Starrie_Wolf



Series: Fic Exchanges [Starrie Wolf] [16]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Remus, BAMF Tonks, F/M, M/M, Multi, Or rather two very stubborn people save him, Prodding at plot holes, Sirius Black Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 22:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5718802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrie_Wolf/pseuds/Starrie_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Why would <i>Bellatrix Lestrange</i> use a Stunning Spell instead of Avada Kedavra?"</p><p>"Well, maybe she wants him alive."</p><p>They stared at each other in dawning horror.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back with me (with us)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Settiai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/gifts).



> Inspired by this scene:
>
>> __  
> "But I don't care either, I don't care!" said Tonks, seizing the front of Lupin's robes and shaking them. "I've told you a million times...."
>> 
>> _And the meaning of Tonk's Patronus and her mouse-coloured hair, and the reason she had come running to find Dumbledore when she had heard a rumour someone had been attacked by Greyback, all suddenly became clear to Harry; it had not been Sirius that Tonks had fallen in love with after all._
>> 
>> _"And I've told you a million times," said Lupin, refusing to meet her eyes, staring at the floor, "that I am too old for you, too poor... too dangerous..."  
> _  
> 
> 
> \- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in the Hospital Wing immediately after Dumbledore's death 

“No.”

“Why?” she demanded, quickening her steps, resisting the urge to grab Remus’ arm before the other man could flee down the corridor. She knew he was interested, damn it, seen the furtive looks sent her way _for the whole year_ when he thought she wasn’t looking, and Nymphadora Tonks might have been a clumsy half-blood but she was also one of the best Aurors in her generation, did he really think he was fooling her?

She’d thought he was giving her the chance to think it over carefully before making a move. She just hadn’t expected him to be turning her down every time she asked, first by pretending to misunderstand her, then by outright running away when her questions started getting blunter.

“Because you’re what, too old? Twelve years isn’t that much of an age gap, not even amongst Muggles. Too poor? It’s not like I’m in it for money! Too _dangerous_?” She scoffed, shooting down all his most likely excuses with rapid-fire arguments. “The only danger you pose is to _yourself_!”

Remus whirled around, anguish and heartbreak glittering in his eyes, and screamed, “Too in love with someone else!”

He wrenched his arm from her grasp before she could fully process those words, and was gone before she could even react.

Oh.

She hadn’t been expecting that at all.

* * *

Tonks sat on the bed in the room she’d been allocated at the Burrow, and gave this new development the full consideration it deserved. Remus was – had been? – in love with someone else. Now that she actually thought about it, it was so obvious she had to slap herself for not picking up the hints earlier.

But Remus also had, as far as she’d could tell, been flirting with her for the past year.

Sirius had definitely known. He’d even encouraged it, actually. Tonks could remember at least three separate occasions where she’d inadvertently bumped into or tripped onto Remus while Sirius had been around. Her cousin might have had a cruel streak, but she found it hard to believe he’d direct it at his best friend – his boyfriend? Not to mention Sirius had seemed to genuinely like her.

So, for whatever reason, Remus had had a crush on her, and his… _partner_ had encouraged it.

Was Remus now feeling guilty about the whole thing?

* * *

“Sirius would have wanted you to be happy,” she said through the door, knowing that Remus would have just pretended not to be in his room had she knocked.

The door was yanked open, and Tonks nearly fell through the open doorway – legitimately, she didn’t have to fake it at all, not that she’d try to take advantage of a grieving man anyway – before Remus caught her and dragged her into the room.

He looked tired, worse than she’d ever seen him, and for the first time she didn’t write it off as a side-effect of the full moon.

“Sirius would have wanted a lot of things,” Remus sighed, sitting back down on his bed, and it took her a moment to realise he was responding to her opening statement. “What do you want, Tonks?”

“I want a relationship with you,” she said bluntly, because that hadn’t changed. “But not a rebound relationship, or something you feel guilty about.” She’d always – foolishly, now that she thought about it – thought she had known, but maybe it was time to extend the same courtesy to him. “So what do _you_ want, Remus?”

This time, there was no hesitation at all in his answer, though it was spoken so softly she had to lean in to hear him.

“I want him back.”

* * *

Sneaking into the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library, reflected Tonks, was ridiculously easy – especially when you’re accompanied by someone who’d helped to chart every single inch of the school. They couldn’t find a copy of the original blueprints, Remus had admitted, so the Marauders had eventually had to do it manually.

If she blinked, she could almost imagine it was Seventh Year all over again, a mountain of books in front of her as she frantically researched obscure topics in the hopes of pushing her final NEWT grade up from EE to an O.

“It was a Stunning Spell,” Remus’ disembodied voice from the seat beside her almost made her jump, dispelling the illusion of being a student in an instant. “He wasn’t dead when he went through, and _every mention_ of that accursed Veil says you have to be _dead_ for the Veil to keep you!”

“Time component?” Tonks suggested, rifling through a different book. “Maybe it takes time for the Veil to realise he’s still alive and, er, spit him back out?”

There was a slight ruffle in the air, as though Remus had just shaken his head. “According to this treatise, past rejections have always occurred almost instantaneously. There’s this witch in the 18th century, for example, who was comatose and brain dead when they sent her through – even that didn’t work.”

Tonks didn’t bother pointing out the inherent fallacy of following precedence, knowing that Remus wouldn’t have appreciated being told something he already knew. “Are you sure it’s a Stunner, though? Bellatrix could have been using another Dark spell with that colour.” Granted, it had been the exact bright red she associated with a Stunning Spell, but Tonks wasn’t arrogant enough to think that she knew the colour of every single spell ever invented.

“Red’s unlikely for a Dark Spell, especially one that Bellatrix would prefer,” Remus responded, though he sounded like he was giving her suggestion serious thought. “Dark Spells usually contain more energy, so they’d normally fall on the other end of the visible light spectrum.” He paused, and the resignation was clear in his voice when he spoke up again. “But even if I was right, I don’t understand – why would Bellatrix use a Stunner instead of Avada Kedavra?”

“Well, maybe she wanted him alive,” retorted Tonks without thinking, and then she spun around in her seat. Remus was still under the Disillusionment Charm, but that was okay, the look on his face was probably the same as hers. “It took _hours_ for Bones and Scrimgeour to clear the red tape before the Aurors were able to sweep the Department of Mysteries.” She would know, she’d _been_ there. “They could have taken him long before we got in.”

* * *

A quick query to her mother told her that yes, Narcissa Malfoy might love her eldest sister enough to offer her sanctuary, and there were actual dungeons beneath the Malfoy mansion, a leftover relic of the previous centuries. Unfortunately, Narcissa’s love didn’t extend to Andromeda, and even if it had, Bellatrix wouldn’t have tolerated a half-blood’s presence.

They were going to have to break in, search the dungeons, and then break out preferably before they were noticed.

Tonks was formally trained as a field Auror by Alastor Moody himself, with a sub-speciality of infiltration. Remus, on the other hand, was a bit of a jack of all trades – no one was willing to hire a known werewolf, not with Fenrir Greyback’s pack tearing up entire Wizarding villages, and so Dumbledore hired him on behalf of the Order. His field experience included not only solo infiltrations into werewolf packs, but also strike team coordination, ward-breaking, extractions – whatever they had needed manpower for.

He would be doing the heavy-lifting, but she had to be the one to go in.

“You don’t have to do this, you know.”

Tonks shook her head, double-checking her spare wand and potions pouch. “Don’t be an idiot. If I let you go alone, you’d just get yourself killed – or worse. We can’t afford to give them two hostages.”

“No, I mean –” Remus caught her hands. “If you’re doing this only because I asked –”

She rolled her eyes, but his palms were large and warm, and she didn’t feel like breaking his hold. “I’m not suicidal,” she replied pointedly. “And I’m not doing this for you – okay, not _just_ for you,” she amended at his raised eyebrow. “I’m doing this for myself, too. I’m doing this because Sirius was funny, and an amazing friend, and so many people have missed him – not the least you, me, and his poor godson – and it wouldn’t be right to leave him in the clutches of the Death Eaters even if I wasn’t trying to get into your pants.”

Tonks spun primly on the spot, ignoring the spluttering coming from behind her, and Apparated away. And if she was smiling secretively to herself in the few moments before Remus joined her, well, that was for her and the trees to know.

* * *

She really shouldn’t have been surprised when the first words out of Sirius’ mouth, after weeks spent recuperating from Bellatrix’s tender mercies, were, “Have the two of you gotten it on yet?”

This time, she was looking right at him, and so she couldn’t miss the way Remus flushed _bright red_ at Sirius’ insinuating wink.

“Come on,” he wheedled, and neither of them pointed out the gravel-like quality of his voice, like he’d – probably – just spent the past few months screaming himself hoarse. “I’m banned from any _strenuous activity_ , courtesy of Pomfrey, so I’ve got to live vicariously through you two right now.”

Before she could talk herself out of it, Tonks took the scant few steps towards the bed, bent down, and pecked Sirius on the lips.

“Hm,” she said, straightening, and pretending not to notice the two men gaping at her. “Yeah, Remus, I think I get what the fuss is all about now.”

Sirius closed his mouth, blinked twice, and then opened it again. “Maybe you should try him too, get a good basis for comparison,” he suggested.

Tonks laughed out loud, and then kissed Remus to the background of Sirius whooping.


End file.
